Tulane Coach Calls Out Northwestern Over Jersey Spat

A spat over jersey colors turned into motivation for Tulane in its win over Northwestern.

After his team’s 23-3 win on Saturday, Aug. 30, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall called out Northwestern for denying its request to swap uniform colors so that they could honor their 2005 team and the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

“Don’t disrespect New Orleans, ever,” Sumrall said, according to ESPN.

Sumrall said the team used Northwestern’s denial as motivation for its season-opener in New Orleans.

Tulane wore its green home uniforms, but wanted to wear white away jerseys in a nod to its 2005 team that wore white after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, forcing the team to play all 12 of its games on the road that season.

Sumrall said Tulane sent a request to Northwestern on Aug. 17 regarding the planned jersey swap but that the Wildcats denied the school’s ask.

“When you show disrespect to the city of New Orleans, that’s what’s going to happen to you. You’re going to run into a team like this,” Sumrall said after the game. “They had a chip on their shoulder because I wanted them to wear the same exact uniform that team wore 20 years ago, request got denied, and we might have used that for a little bit of motivation to represent the city.”

Northwestern’s head coach David Braun told ESPN he personally reached out to Sumrall after hearing his comments and explained that Northwestern didn’t deny the request because of what it was about but rather that the team’s uniforms and helmet decals had already been prepared for the team’s season-opening game and that a change would have allegedly taken the school months to handle.

Braun also noted that he visited New Orleans in 2006 with teammates from his Winona State football team at the time to help clean up after Katrina. The hurricane was one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, killing more than 1,400 people and causing more than $151 billion in damages to the city, according to the Associated Press.

“I don’t pretend to understand what the city of New Orleans has been through, but what I can tell you is this university and myself have a tremendous amount of respect for the impact that Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans and that region,” Braun told ESPN. “I had an opportunity to see it firsthand … it was devastating. Having a chance to return to New Orleans for the first time since that trip, where that city’s at right now is a reflection of the people that call it home.”